A Married Woman

by Manju Kapur

Book Overview

Astha has everything an educated, middle-class Delhi woman could ask for - a loving husband and affluent surroundings - and yet is consumed with a sense of dissatisfaction. She begins an extra-marital affair with a younger woman, the widow of a political activist and jeopardizes everything.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0571215661
• ISBN13: 9780571215669
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable...

The story is much more than Asta's relationship with another woman, that only comes along near the end of the book. Kapur does a wonderful job dissecting the the everyday of an ordinary life, showing how even the ordinary in this generation can be claustrophobic. Kapur highlights how women were taught that caring for anything outside the small world created for you (whether it is in an ashram, your parent's house, or your husband's house) was not normal. The character of Asta struggles with this throughout the book, using her art and then eventual political activism to be a part of the world. Her affair is another outlet for this connection. I found the history fascinating and the story well written. This book does not have a packaged ending and offers no excuses for its story, so is refreshing and a fast read.

a nice combo

It is a nicely written book. Manju Kapur has beautifully combined several topics such as communal riots, a married woman's life and how she finds love in a person of same sex as of hers. It is well explained that how if a person wants love it is not necessary that the partner should be of opposite sex. Thus this book is worth reading once by all. This book can also be counted as a support to the homosexuals as it has been mentioned in the book. The author has mentioned the positive and not the negative side of homosexuality.

Sheer brilliance!

Manju Kapur weaves an extraordinarily vivid tale of love, lust, longing, gender roles and family structures, set against the backdrop of communal violence and the South Asian family. A reader can instantly connect with the lead character of Astha, as she experiences the trials and tribulations of being a teenager, puberty, losing a parent, entering an arranged marriage, economic dependence, raising a family and finding her true passion through art, activism and love. Kapur's realistic style and emphasis on painting a detailed picture of a character's environment only make this novel all the more readable, and one of the most interesting fiction pieces I have read in a while.